UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas opened the second annual United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Moment last month, emphasizing the role of solidarity as an engine for change. “Global solidarity is more important than ever. Together we have an extraordinary opportunity to change the world we live in,” said the Indian actress and singer.
Although Chopra Jonas was referring to the fight against climate change, this appreciation could be applied to many other world issues. Solidarity is essential to solving many of humanity’s most pressing challenges. But it is vital when it comes to achieving health security.
After two and a half years of Covid-19, the world’s health systems are collapsing. Even with the end of the pandemic in sight, the virus is still raging. In addition, monkeypox has been officially declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. In addition, cases of vaccine-caused poliovirus have been documented in more than 30 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. At a time when infectious diseases can spread across the globe in a matter of hours, global solidarity is more important than ever.
What that means is simple. People living along the path of an approaching wildfire must work together to put it out. The same applies to global health security. In 1966, in the midst of the Cold War, the United States (USA) worked alongside the Soviet Union (USSR) to end smallpox and measles. This collaboration, in turn, encouraged the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead the eradication program.
Vaccine nationalism has killed vulnerable people
Important lessons can be learned from this history. First of all, global health solidarity can lead to unexpected alliances. The US and USSR were rival superpowers; However, they put aside the Cold War to eradicate a disease that had plagued humanity for more than 3,000 years.
Giving responsibility to the WHO ensured that the smallpox vaccine was freely available to all countries without richer countries hoarding doses. The last case of smallpox was detected in Somalia in 1977, ten years after the program began, and three years later the organization declared eradication of the disease. The entire effort cost $300 million, but it has been estimated that more than $1 billion was saved each year.
Polio is another disease on the brink of eradication thanks to coordinated global efforts. Rotary International, which has 1.4 million members worldwide, began a campaign in 1985 to vaccinate children against polio around the world. Three years later, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was established at the WHO World Health Assembly. Many countries joined, contributing funds and mobilizing organizations and communities. In the 34 years since its inception, it has reduced the global incidence of the disease by more than 99%, prevented paralysis in more than 10 million people and vaccinated 2.5 billion children.
African countries have been battling monkeypox for decades, but the disease didn’t garner international attention until cases began to emerge in the West.
We seem to have forgotten those lessons. Unlike the concerted global push to eradicate smallpox and polio, the response to Covid-19 has been one of nationalistic narrow-mindedness. The pandemic is a global catastrophe that has killed more than six million people and affected at least 100 million by the so-called long Covid. But this time, instead of coordinating their responses, developed countries focused on mitigating the impact within their borders. The mentality that the rich Western countries adopted was in response to a siege situation, so they stockpiled personal protective equipment, vaccines and medicines, leaving the poorest countries on the sidelines, which is why those countries had to settle for crumbs.
Africa, on the other hand, has launched the world’s most coordinated response to Covid-19, pooling resources from regional institutions such as the African Union; and by promoting local alliances. Managing a pandemic like COVID-19 requires this level of collaboration on a global scale.
Higher-income countries should take the lead in developing detection and response mechanisms
The Mechanism for Global Access to Coronavirus Vaccines (COVAX) needed to be implemented in a coordinated manner to boost the global immunization effort and ensure low-income countries could access it. But it faced constant funding gaps and struggled to acquire cans. In a recent interview, Harris Gleckman, former head of the New York office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, argued that this instrument allows corporate interests to use United Nations procedures to safeguard their profits at little social cost or no attention is paid at all.
Simply put, vaccine nationalism has killed vulnerable people. Mike Whelan of the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness, a foundation that helped launch COVAX, confirmed this in a recent statement Round table discussion.
The response to monkeypox is another example of vaccine nationalism damaging global health security. African countries have been battling monkeypox for decades, but the disease didn’t garner international attention until cases began to emerge in the West. Nigeria’s first case was recorded in 1972, and several have been detected each year since 2017. But while people in developed countries are being vaccinated against the disease, African countries are still waiting for their doses.
The opportunity for improvement is just around the corner. The Ugandan health authorities have explained Recently, an outbreak of the Ebola virus was confirmed following a case in the country’s Mubende district. Global solidarity is needed to contain this outbreak. Higher-income countries need to take the lead in developing detection and response mechanisms. And global institutions like the UN and WHO must confront nationalism by promoting justice.
Together we can defeat disease outbreaks before they spiral out of control. Achieving this alone is always much more difficult. An Igbo proverb, one of the most widespread ethnic groups in Africa, says: “If your house is on fire, do not devote yourself to rodent extermination.”
Ifeanyi M. Nsofor is a senior fellow of New Voices at the Aspen Institute and of Global Atlantic for Health Equity at George Washington University.
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